Fresh off an oil-boom, the black residents of Greenwood, Okla. built a booming community known as The Negro Wall Street. But in May of 1921, that all changed. Word spread that a lynch mob of white people were heading to a courthouse to kill a black man accused of accosting a white woman in an elevator. United, the African-Americans marched, prepared to defend his innocence. The Tulsa Massacre would soon commence and later be known as one of the most egregious attacks against African-Americans.
White people stomped into Greenwood, Okla. with destruction in mind. Looting, killing, burning, and causing chaos on the thriving black community. Decades later, the true story of the destruction of The Negro Wall Street is still being dissected.
Hosted by Henry Louis Gates Jr. — with additional commentary from Farrah Griffin of Columbia University — we share the story of the Tulsa Race Riots, a horrifying experience that haunts generations past and present.
